Hello everyone! Happy 2015! I hope it will be a wonderful year of positive challenges and rewarding successes for each and every one of us… munchkins included!
Science:
We are so excited to begin our rainforest unit! The rainforest is a fascinating, intricate place, populated by equally fascinating (and sometimes bizarre!) plants and animals, and we will get to know it quite well in the weeks to come. To begin this study, the class discussed what they already knew about the rainforest and its inhabitants with Mrs. K. They watched a video highlighting some of the animals of the rainforest, and participated in a guided drawing of a monkey. Ms. Louderback led the class in a See-Think-Wonder exploration of this awesome photo of the Costa Rican rainforest floor. The students put on their Rainforest Explorer badges, and used their Scientist Eyes to look closely at the photo, while sounds of the rainforest played in the background to add to the ambiance. We gathered lots of information about the rainforest based on this close looking, and when it came time for the “wonder” segment, several of the students even made hypotheses about what might have caused some of the things they noticed in the photo. We discussed that a hypothesis is when a scientist thinks of a way something MIGHT have happened, but still needs to study more closely to determine for sure. Then the students used the scientist close-looking skills we had just practiced to independently examine other photographs of the rainforest floor, and record what they saw on sketchbook pages.
Literacy:
This week in literacy we reviewed the letter z, and our sight word was “has.” We also started talking about the “Floss Rule” – the spelling rule that dictates that a single-syllable word, ending in a F, L, or S, will have that final consonant doubled… as in, “floss,” “hill,” and “fluff.” This is the kind of rule that we will expose all of the students to, and some will master, and some will tuck away in their brains as a first exposure to build on later, depending on what is developmentally appropriate for that child. :) Many books went home with the students this week, to read aloud to you all over the weekend... if your child did not bring a book home, he/she will next week. Please remember to return these books inside the plastic bag on Monday! We appreciate your help.
Math:
What a great first week! We have had oodles of fun this week in Math. We introduced huge kid-sized number line this week and used it to explore addition, rolling a dice and moving forward the amount of steps rolled. We also used the prometheon board to roll dice and then added the amount of dots together, using number fans to show everyone our answers. But perhaps the most fun was saved till last, when we became human shapes! We looked at a range of shapes with straight sides and then worked together to make them! The super fun pictures can be seen on our shutterfly site. Ask your children what shape they helped make!
Our Math Stations this week included:
· Number formation practice with Mrs K
· The bus stop game - a British game where you add and take away passengers from your bus, the first bus to the station with a full bus wins.
· The fly swatter game - children chose numerals from a bowl and then swatted them with fly swatters the corresponding amount of times.
· Addition teddies in a bag - the children shook a ziplock bag with teddies in it and an addition sign in the middle. They then saw which teddies landed on each side and added the teddies together.
· Hole punching numbers - the children picked numerals and punched the corresponding amount of holes to go with them
· Number line addition - the children stood on a large number line and rolled extra-large dice, moving the amount of steps rolled by the dice
· Write the room - the children looked for pictures around the room and counted the objects on them. They then recorded how many they found and used a number line to see what numbers come before and after each.
· i pads - the children played Top It against the computer, a math card game where the highest cards win.
In Other News:
We had a great time with our Mystery Reader, Mason's mom Julianne! Big thanks to her, and also to our academic helper, Lily M’s mom Ali, who did an awesome job supervising a phonics writing activity! Thanks as well to the moms who supervised lunch on Wednesday – Ali Medintz, Jennifer Leibowitz, and Tiffany Egge.
We were excited to welcome back several of our Flat Students this week! Flat Ana, Flat Hunter, and Flat Anna all returned to school, with fun photos, postcards, and other souvenirs of their adventures.
Happy birthday to Anna, who turned 6 over winter break! She, and all the other kids with November and December birthdays, had a great time being honored at our EL Assembly on Friday. :)
Science:
We are so excited to begin our rainforest unit! The rainforest is a fascinating, intricate place, populated by equally fascinating (and sometimes bizarre!) plants and animals, and we will get to know it quite well in the weeks to come. To begin this study, the class discussed what they already knew about the rainforest and its inhabitants with Mrs. K. They watched a video highlighting some of the animals of the rainforest, and participated in a guided drawing of a monkey. Ms. Louderback led the class in a See-Think-Wonder exploration of this awesome photo of the Costa Rican rainforest floor. The students put on their Rainforest Explorer badges, and used their Scientist Eyes to look closely at the photo, while sounds of the rainforest played in the background to add to the ambiance. We gathered lots of information about the rainforest based on this close looking, and when it came time for the “wonder” segment, several of the students even made hypotheses about what might have caused some of the things they noticed in the photo. We discussed that a hypothesis is when a scientist thinks of a way something MIGHT have happened, but still needs to study more closely to determine for sure. Then the students used the scientist close-looking skills we had just practiced to independently examine other photographs of the rainforest floor, and record what they saw on sketchbook pages.
Literacy:
This week in literacy we reviewed the letter z, and our sight word was “has.” We also started talking about the “Floss Rule” – the spelling rule that dictates that a single-syllable word, ending in a F, L, or S, will have that final consonant doubled… as in, “floss,” “hill,” and “fluff.” This is the kind of rule that we will expose all of the students to, and some will master, and some will tuck away in their brains as a first exposure to build on later, depending on what is developmentally appropriate for that child. :) Many books went home with the students this week, to read aloud to you all over the weekend... if your child did not bring a book home, he/she will next week. Please remember to return these books inside the plastic bag on Monday! We appreciate your help.
Math:
What a great first week! We have had oodles of fun this week in Math. We introduced huge kid-sized number line this week and used it to explore addition, rolling a dice and moving forward the amount of steps rolled. We also used the prometheon board to roll dice and then added the amount of dots together, using number fans to show everyone our answers. But perhaps the most fun was saved till last, when we became human shapes! We looked at a range of shapes with straight sides and then worked together to make them! The super fun pictures can be seen on our shutterfly site. Ask your children what shape they helped make!
Our Math Stations this week included:
· Number formation practice with Mrs K
· The bus stop game - a British game where you add and take away passengers from your bus, the first bus to the station with a full bus wins.
· The fly swatter game - children chose numerals from a bowl and then swatted them with fly swatters the corresponding amount of times.
· Addition teddies in a bag - the children shook a ziplock bag with teddies in it and an addition sign in the middle. They then saw which teddies landed on each side and added the teddies together.
· Hole punching numbers - the children picked numerals and punched the corresponding amount of holes to go with them
· Number line addition - the children stood on a large number line and rolled extra-large dice, moving the amount of steps rolled by the dice
· Write the room - the children looked for pictures around the room and counted the objects on them. They then recorded how many they found and used a number line to see what numbers come before and after each.
· i pads - the children played Top It against the computer, a math card game where the highest cards win.
In Other News:
We had a great time with our Mystery Reader, Mason's mom Julianne! Big thanks to her, and also to our academic helper, Lily M’s mom Ali, who did an awesome job supervising a phonics writing activity! Thanks as well to the moms who supervised lunch on Wednesday – Ali Medintz, Jennifer Leibowitz, and Tiffany Egge.
We were excited to welcome back several of our Flat Students this week! Flat Ana, Flat Hunter, and Flat Anna all returned to school, with fun photos, postcards, and other souvenirs of their adventures.
Happy birthday to Anna, who turned 6 over winter break! She, and all the other kids with November and December birthdays, had a great time being honored at our EL Assembly on Friday. :)